FAITH PRODUCES PATIENCE

" Count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience"- JAMES 1:2-3

from: www.kozzi.com

           In life, this is very true that obstacles in various forms come into play one way or the other. No matter what our status in life, whether one is rich or poor,  white or black, big or small, yet trials still come along the way. Wealth is never an assurance that one will be fully blessed in life. At times, even those who seemed so deprived prove to be more contented in life compared to those who are more privileged. 

          In short, life would always be coupled with trials and it depends on one's ability to handle them that will measure how far or near they can go with those trials. From the moment that one wakes up up to the point that he goes to bed, so many experiences exist along the way. One could not just evade situations that bring challenges and hardships. Neither that he can just turns away from them. The best possible way to handle them is to welcome and consider them as possible resources of growing up and developing more one's patience in life.

from:www.kozzi.com

          On the other hand, being patient will enable each one to deal with various situations and people. However when one is faced with a difficult situation, it is then that this patience is put into test.  Various ways to deal with a difficult situations come in expectedly and unexpectedly. Some of the ways to deal with such situations are:

1. Don't let any trial to rule over one's life.

2. Step back and look at the whole picture objectively.

3. Recognize all points both positive vs negative.

4. Enumerate components at hand that can be of immediate assistance.

5. Enumerate other components outside of oneself and check if they can be made available at hand.

6. Pray for God's guidance before implementing concrete steps to deal with the difficult situation.

7. Accept responsibility for all outcome.

          How do you deal with your own trial in life? Feel free to share them here and let us all learn from each other.

GRATEFULNESS IS A VIRTUE

          Of all  the virtues that we have in our lifetime, one of the most noteworthy is GRATEFULNESS. Kindness is closely associated with this virtue. At times, we tend to neglect to show this virtue to others especially when we merely focus on all those life's trivialities. 

          However, it takes not much on our effort to manifest this virtue to others yet this could often be neglected and ignored. What then is gratefulness? As such, gratefulness is "a feeling or attitude in acknowledgment of a benefit that one has received or will receive. The experience of gratitude has historically been a focus of several world religions and has been considered

from:www.pixabay.com

 extensively by moral philosophers such as Adam Smith. With the advent of the positive psychology movement, gratitude has become a mainstream focus of psychological research. The study of gratitude within psychology has focused on the understanding of the short term experience of the emotion of gratitude (state gratitude), individual differences in how frequently people feel gratitude (trait gratitude), and the relationship between these two aspects." (source: wikipedia- the free encylopedia)

          As the above reference would tell us, this virtue is a positive one and this becomes an instrument for certain relationships to grow and to expand. At a certain point in our life, we ought to think  of others more than of ourselves thus it is but appropriate for us to extend our gratitude to all those who have become instruments for us to become who we are now. 

from:www.pixabay.com

          In our life, people come and go yet if we take a look back on certain chapters in our life, we then can pinpoint significant people who have extended themselves to us in one way or the other. They just come without any pre- condition in sharing themselves to us. They, in the process, leave some imprint in our life. Our present status in life is a product of all the processes and inter actions that we passed in our lifetime.

         Thus, it is but proper to extend back our gratefulness to all those people who have become part of our life journey. We are further invited to become instruments for growth to others so that they themselves will experience positive development in life.

BONDING MOMENT WITH SIGNIFICANT PEOPLE

          Last weekend, I had the fantastic opportunity of celebrating life when two precious people remembered their birthdays. The first celebration was that of my friends' daughter who celebrated her first birthday. Her name is Caeli Ricca and she's such a wonderful  little girl. She did enjoy her party although it is still beyond her understanding what was going on around her during that night. 

          Many visitors joined the proud parents, Alvin and Denden, on their joy with their daughter's memorable evening. Delicious food and drinks were served all throughout the party. Disco music also was filling the hall and people were dancing trying to sweat it out. On the dancefloor, children were outrageous trying to outsmart each other with their dance moves at times displaying some latest dance craze such as Psy's gentleman moves and others. Indeed, it was such a very enjoyable moment for me and my wife to take part in that party.

from:www.kozzi.com

          On the other hand, last night's party was for our friend, Melissa, who celebrated her 21st birthday. The venue was at MAMA'S PARMA'S, a famous party place in CBD, Melbourne. When we arrived in the place, many guests were there aside from our group. Choices of food were mostly on various recipes of parma's. I chose the chicken parma and I finished everything just showing how delicious was my food. 

Angelyn, Melissa and Myra

The birthday girl together with friends at Strike Bowling Bar QV

Melisssa (right) and a friend

          Aside from the food, we met new and cool friends like Jess and Nicole who were so lively in sharing their insights as well on topics like food, life and pets. Angelyn, my wife's mate, was enthusiastically sharing with us her own experiences  in those topics. The celebrant, Melissa, was the darling of the night. She was gorgeous with her dress for the evening. Some of her close friends especially her boyfriend also joined her in her party. It was such a great experience for me as I enjoyed both my food and the company.

SHARING THE GIFT OF LIFE

          Today as my loved one celebrates her birthday, I am with her as she embraces her creator's goodness in bringing another chapter to her life. Indeed, life is the most precious gift that we all received from God. 

               Everyday we are endowed with situations in which we can share this gift of life with others. It is not just on birthdays that we must realize life's value....we need to inculcate in our minds that everyday is always a reminder for us to treasure and get hold of this gift.

from:www.pixabay.com

Moreover, I salute those who are seemed to be deprived in life in terms of capabilities, those who are differently abled, those who are denied of certain senses like that of seeing and hearing, yet in the midst of their predicaments they are still projecting how precious life is. Even if many are feeling hurt and helpless in those situations yet there are many also who emerge triumphant of such deprivation and they are the ones who serve as models for all to strive the more.

          On the other hand, we are surrounded by people, events, situations and others that will aid us in holding on to what is ideal in life. We have different goals and directions, we own separate ways, we carry different burdens yet we are on the same journey that is towards the fulfillment of our life. We all aim for happiness and contentment. Yet many instances in our life can tell us that it is not all joy that we experience everyday. As life goes on, we continue to struggle and fall down yet what counts the most is that we continue to get up and survive each day believing that  we can get over the situation and emerge as better persons.

from: www.pixabay.com

          To reiterate, I celebrate the joy of my beloved on her memorable moment this day and I am with her in extending gratitude to our Divine Creator for all goodness shared day by day most notably the gift of LIFE. 

  

A GUEST POST: LIFE

Life

                Life is the most precious gift one human being can have. What we always wish is to spend it in a peaceful and safe community. Around the world we often see life as a threatening thing to be. We can never tell what will happen next. It could be natural disasters , wars, civil disturbance and sometimes sickness. Few people are just being killed without any provocation or reason. Other killings are done out of mental disturbance.

from:www.pixabay.com

                 We meet people by chance for they meant to cross our path. Experience wise, I have witnessed life as a gift that needs to be taken good care of. Sometimes, life seems so unfair especially when we lose someone whom we have offered love and trust.

                  Facing the challenges now is but a game to be won, but accepting the fact that a loved one is about to lose a life because of a certain sickness is more tragic. You feel being betrayed and helpless for your dreams are shattered. 

                  On the other hand, you want to spend your life with a person whom you have loved tremendously. And then suddenly, someone will tell you he`s about to leave you soon. How can someone take such sad news of a loved one who will be giving up life so soon? Seems so traumatic to accept it in an instant. Giving all the sacrifices  to fulfill a dream and then you suddenly realize that it will never be yours forever.

from:www.pixabay.com

                  One can definitely believe that having and giving life is such a pleasure... GOD has all the reasons to  what is happening around us and He is always there to protect us. Don't ever lose faith and always ask for His guidance in everything that you will do to your LIFE.

by: CARRISA GALLANO

SIGNIFICANT DREAMS in LIFE

          Dreams have so many interpretations. On this post, I won't dwell on them yet what I would like to share are insights on a friend's dreams. What was significant in her dreams was their resemblance to her waking life. Below are some of her dreams as she narrated them:

* Dream 1: 

          "I see in my dream a guy whom I haven't met in my life. One time, he is bringing a soccer ball with him. Then he brings me to his house which I notice that it is not lighted enough. We go through the kitchen door. Their house's style is  extremely different from houses way back home. When we enter the kitchen, there's an old man sitting on a chair in the dining area. Then as we come into the living room, there is this old woman sitting calmly on a sofa". 

from: www.dreamstime.com

 -----relevance of this dream to the dreamer: when she was married to her husband,  she remembered that he looks very much alike with that guy in her dream. Then asking him about soccer game, he said he was previously playing the game and in fact, he was once a winner of the "Best Player" award. Further, she recalled that when they went to her husband's house, she recognized it as that in her dream. It was there that she also met his mother and step dad. 

* Dream  2:

          "In my dream, my boyfriend goes away one night. He wears a back pack and what he gestures to me as we part ways is that as he walks away, he just turns his back then gone".   

-----dream's relevance: It was a dream before she separated from her daughter's father. The next day after she had this dream, her boyfriend's uncle informed her that he went away just bringing his back up with him. 

from: www.dreamstime.com

* Dream 3:

         " In my dream, I hear somebody knocking my bedroom door and when I open it, there is this lady standing then she hands over to me a baby". 

-----dream's relevance: After a few months, she and her family learned that her sister was pregnant and later, delivered  a baby girl during her (dreamer) birthday.

          Our dreamer has other dreams which she claimed that later they became realities. In her case, there is that sense of connectedness between her dreams and her life. Were they all coincidences or not? I could never tell - perhaps they were or it could also be that she has the gift of foretelling certain events in her life through dreams. 

          Recalling back our dream study, we dwelt on several interpretations of dreams. In my friend's case, I  invited her to focus her energy on those parts  that she considered relevant to her waking life. A dream is composed of various important parts and it is the dreamer's option to pick out those which are most touching to him. After all, it is the dreamer who can evaluate a dream's impact on her/his life. On the other hand, my role lies on being a facilitator in identifying connections of any dream to one's waking life. This is done by allowing the dreamer to undergo certain accompaniment so that he will see his dream's impact. 

p.s. I thank my friend, EMILY C. DEVILBISS of Maryland, USA for sharing her story.

ANOTHER WEEK.....ANOTHER REASON TO SAY "THANK YOU"

          It has been more than a week that I posted my last entry on this blog. Anyway, this week has been another wonderful one for me. Bountiful blessings and rich experiences ushered me to strengthen further my belief that life is such a treasure. This week's unique experiences added colors to my life's chapter. Somehow some may perhaps tend to be monotonous however personally,  every single experience plays a unique role to my self discovery. Indeed this journey called life is a never ending one. It goes beyond time. No two experiences are exactly alike  from each other. 

fr:www.kozzi.com

          For all those reasons, I could declare that I am so grateful for this week's events since they enabled me to appreciate the more what is life. On the other hand, even my own work experiences as well were deeply appreciated for they allow me to survive day by day. Without my job, I could never support my self and my family.  

          Consequently giving the best of my ability in every job that I perform is a daily goal. I make it a point that quality and elegance will always be a part of my work attributes. Committing any error in my daily performance has no room since in the whole production process, I serve as the starting point. If I don't do it perfectly, then the rest of our production will suffer. 

          Meanwhile my experiences at home were all noteworthy and special as well.  Those times of bonding with my dearest wife were extremely delightful moments. My wife and my kid are my main reasons why this life becomes so meaningful everyday. All my efforts and dreams are geared towards their welfare and happiness. Seeing them happy everyday accorded me great satisfaction and meaning for they are source of strength. 

from"www.kozzi.com

          On the other hand, the people I interacted this week also allowed me to share myself and everything with others. After all, I believe that life is sharing and extending my self with others is my joy. That becomes another reason for my sense of self- fulfillment---- knowing that everyday I become an instrument for others to realize that life is such a wonderful journey. 

LIFE IS SUCH A WONDERFUL GIFT.....

          LIFE- what is it anyway? There have been so many meanings and definitions of life yet personally I claim it as a gift --a very precious gift from somebody up there. While being a gift, I am also invited to share it with others. Day by day, as I listen to what is going on with the world nowadays, I could not help but be reflective on all these negative things that struck our great world nowadays. 

          We have floods in certain places, while in other countries there are volcano eruptions and earthquake in other areas. Headlines of nowadays news are at times very disheartening. Hearing news like people who died in Bangladesh due to lightning strike,  landslide damages cars in Malaysia, Mayon volcano eruption in the Philippines, and many more-- such events are affecting many lives, displacing people from their homes, disconnecting members of families.

          While I could not refrain from feeling pity to all those victims above, I am as well grateful for my own life that I have the privilege to wake up every day. Each day brings memories all worthy to cherish. This day is such a great day- the outstanding weather, such fresh air, the clean environment, they allow me to treasure each day. Moreover, I have experienced and shared laughters today with  both significant and ordinary people in my life. I can understand that others may not be feeling this day's greatness due to illness, problems, stress, poverty, disillusionment and other reasons. 

          For this, my heart goes along with them on their plight and on their struggle in their journey. Yet what is most touching in all of these, both for them and for me, is the reality that we are still alive this day---this is one great reason for us to be grateful each day.